The US Air Force's (USAF's) nuclear-capable Long-Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B) programme is expected to emerge from the Department of Defense's (DoD's) classified budget when a contract is awarded to either Northrop Grumman or a Lockheed Martin/Boeing team to develop and build approximately 100 of the stealthy, optionally manned aircraft. Officials have said they expect to announce a winner in the September 2015 timeframe. The Pentagon released a request for proposals for the LRS-B directly to industry in July 2014, so most details about the aircraft are not yet public.
Despite the multibillion-dollar price tag for the programme in an austere budget environment, the LRS-B is near the top of the Pentagon's wish list. It is one of the USAF's top three acquisition priorities - the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter and the Boeing KC-46A aerial refuelling tanker being the other two. It is also one of the three major US nuclear programmes in urgent need of recapitalisation; the US Navy is also seeking to replace its fleet of Ohio-class ballistic missile/guided missile submarines and to extend the life of its Trident II D-5 missiles, while the USAF is studying plans to update its Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
Nuclear priorities
Senior Pentagon officials have been increasingly vocal about making the case for the LRS-B from the nuclear angle. For example, Major General Garrett Harencak, the USAF's assistant chief of staff for strategic deterrence and nuclear integration, argued in 2014 that, unlike nuclear-armed rivals Russia and China, the United States has "taken a modernisation holiday" over the last 20-25 years.
Completing LRS-B development is crucial to maintaining the US nuclear deterrent due to the advanced age of the existing bomber fleets and of the other two legs of the triad, the military official responsible for US strategic deterrence said not long after Maj Gen Harancek made his case. US Strategic Command Chief Admiral Cecil Haney has noted that, as the backbone of the US bomber fleet, the USAF's Boeing B-52s - the last of which came off the assembly line in 1962 - will be used until at least the 2040s. The only other nuclear-capable US bomber, the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit, was built in such small numbers that the fleet is only 20-strong after an accident loss in 2008.
However, the LRS-B alone will not be sufficient to upgrade the ageing bomber fleet. A new Long-Range Standoff (LRSO) cruise missile is also being developed to replace the nuclear-capable AGM-86 air-launched cruise missile (ALCM), designed in the 1970s and in service since 1980. The ALCM is expected to be retired in the mid-2020s and the LRSO could begin production around 2027, according to budget documents. Approximately USD4.8 billion has already been spent, but some analysts project the cost of development and production of the weapon to ultimately reach USD10-20 billion. Officials have thus far declined to provide any details on the recently accelerated LRSO programme.
Cost critique
Keeping the LRS-B programme classified since its inception has invited criticism on that count alone, but other analysts have said the cost of the programme is prohibitive. Despite the fact that a ceiling of USD550 million per copy for a fleet of 80-100 aircraft has been set, critics point to the most recent US bomber acquisition - the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit, which was built in the 1980s at a cost of more than USD700 million per aircraft - to indicate that the USD550 million target is likely unrealistic.
If the Pentagon's Future Years Defense Plan (FYDP) for the LRS-B development is executed beginning in fiscal year (FY) 2017, unclassified funding for the aircraft will reach nearly USD1.5 billion by the end of the seven-year development. Research, development, test, and evaluation (RDT&E) funding for LRS-B was USD319 million in FY 2014, USD914 million in FY 2015, with USD1.2 billion planned for FY 2016. Funding will continue to escalate over the FYDP, with a planned request of USD2.2 billion in FY 2017, USD2.8 billion in FY 2018, USD3.6 billion in FY 2019 and USD3.7 billion in FY 2020. If all 100 aircraft are eventually built, unclassified development costs per aircraft will be at least USD15 million. Those figures do not reflect money hidden in the classified budget that could dramatically increase the cost of the programme long before production even begins. Analysts have said the total RDT&E cost for the programme is likely to approach USD35 billion.
However, USAF acquisition officials have said they were careful to study the state of the art of current technologies used for the LRS-B before opening the competition in order to reduce risk. That risk reduction effort is expected to keep costs in check. Officials continue to express confidence that the competing industry teams are working with mature technology. Maj Gen Harencak said in 2014 that the USAF is "moving mountains" to keep the programme affordable.
Furthermore, the DoD intends to hold future competitions for LRS-B technology enhancements, according to the department's chief weapon buyer. Frank Kendall, the undersecretary of defence for acquisition, technology, and logistics, said in 2015 that such 'technology refresh' competitions are to keep the platform relevant longer, while also keeping the cost of upgrades down. A modular design is expected to facilitate such upgrades.
Still, some observers are also concerned about the nature of the contracting vehicle planned for the LRS-B. William LaPlante, assistant secretary of the air force for acquisition, told Congress early this year that the service will "likely" award a cost-plus rather than a fixed-price contract for the bomber programme. LaPlante said that because so much development work is needed on such a complex programme, awarding a fixed-price contract would be too risky. "We're doing a little more cutting-edge, it's not based on a commercial item, so most likely it's going to be in the cost-plus regime," he said.
Fleet reorganisation and upgrades
The USAF has begun restructuring its Global Strike Command (AFGSC) to include the LRS-B. The reorganisation, expected to be effective in October, is to include the non-nuclear Rockwell B-1B Lancer fleet and both existing nuclear-capable platforms - the B-52H Stratofortress and B-2 Spirit - as well as the Minuteman III ICBMs. Specifically, the LRS-B will join 63 B-1Bs, 76 B-52s, 20 B-2s, and 30,000 airmen at the command.
Each of those existing fleets has been receiving upgrades that have kept them relevant for decades and will do so for decades more. The B-1 carries the largest payload of both guided and unguided weapons in the USAF's inventory. Initially developed in the 1970s as a replacement for the B-52, the programme was briefly cancelled in 1977 before going into production and being fielded in 1981.
Rick Greenwell, Boeing's director for B-1 efforts, told IHS Jane's on 11 August that the company is "making sure it stays viable" until at least 2040. Dan Ruder, who oversees Boeing's B-1 advanced programmes, noted that the recent emphasis for platform upgrades has been improving its close air support (CAS) capabilities.
Boeing has expanded the B-1's weapons carriage from 15 to 48 Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs) in addition to the internal payload of 96 Small Diameter Bombs (SDBs) it can carry, according to Ruder. The B-1 is also expected to be the launch platform for the US Navy's Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM): a stealthy anti-ship cruise missile being developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to replace the navy's current anti-ship missile, the 1970s-era Harpoon.
n addition to its expanded munitions complement, the B-1 is receiving an integrated battle station (IBS) that includes fully integrated datalinks, a digital display, and a modern diagnostics system. "IBS improves the B-1's performance as a global strike platform," said Ruder. "We're installing all-digital cockpit displays and connecting the bombers to a global communications network: capabilities that allow for greater agility and situational awareness."
Ruder said the aircraft is also getting a new inertial navigation system, expected to be complete across the fleet during 2015, that will help with targeting accuracy. During the US-led war in Iraq, the B-1 also received the Lockheed Martin Sniper advanced targeting pod in order to improve precision targeting, so the combination of the two technologies will improve the aircraft's CAS capabilities markedly.
Meanwhile, the B-52, the oldest of the existing US bombers, has been receiving upgrades for decades. B-52 programme director Scot Oathout told IHS Jane's on 13 August that the upgrades will keep the fleet in service "well past 2040". Weapon upgrades centre around the 1760 Internal Weapons Bay Upgrade (IWBU) enhancement: a modified Conventional Rotary Launcher (CRL) that is installed in the aircraft's internal weapons bay. The first increment of the upgrade will allow for JDAM integration (eight carried on the CRL and another 12 externally), with subsequent increments allowing for Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile and Miniature Air Launched Decoy integration. All 76 of the USAF's B-52Hs are expected to receive the upgrade by October 2017.
Previously, the B-52 had been able to carry precision-guided munitions only on its underwing pylons. However, the 1760 upgrade serves one other key purpose, according to Oathout: LRSO integration. Some initial planning for LRSO integration has begun and the B-52 will likely be one of the test platforms, he said.
In addition to the 1760 IWBU upgrade, B-52s have been receiving the Combat Network Communications Technology (CONECT) digital data suite: an update to the obsolete Northrop Grumman AN/APQ-166 radar that allowed for, among other things, integration of the AN/AAQ-33 Lockheed Martin Sniper pod to complement the AN/AAQ-28 Northrop Grumman Litening advanced targeting pod it already carried. CONECT also allowed for introduction of the extremely high-frequency (EHF) satellite communications upgrade.
Even the newest of the three existing bombers, the stealthy B-2, is receiving upgrades to keep it relevant until the new stealth bomber is introduced. In 2014 Northrop Grumman completed a USAF review of a new software package for the fleet. The preliminary design review of the weapons management system software, known as the USAF's Flexible Strike programme, was conducted early in the year at Northrop Grumman's B-2 facility in Oklahoma City. 'Flexible Strike Phase 1' was created to streamline weapons management software on the B-2. The aircraft previously had several standalone software programmes that managed specific missions. Streamlining the software this way is expected to reduce maintenance costs and increase reliability, according to Northrop Grumman.
The Flexible Strike programme is the first B-2 modernisation effort to take advantage of a new communications infrastructure that includes faster processors, a fibre-optic network, and increased onboard data storage. Northrop Grumman created the infrastructure for the first increment of the B-2 EHF satellite communications programme.
In late 2012 the company completed field installations of an active electronically scanned array (AESA) upgrade to the B-2's Raytheon AN/APQ-181 radar. Other enhancements include improvements to the cockpit weapon interfaces to accommodate new munitions, such as the SDB II and the Massive Ordnance Penetrator; the fitting of enhanced communications; and the installation of a Universal Armament Interface.
Northrop Grumman is also providing software and hardware upgrades to the aircraft's Lockheed Martin AN/APR-50 defensive management system; Lockheed Martin's Mission Systems and Training division is developing a new avionics graphics processor; while L-3 Communications Randtron Antenna Systems and Ball Aerospace are working on new antennas for that upgrade.
